As Matsuo Boshou said,

do not seek to follow in the footsteps of others.

Instead, seek what they sought.

This is about knowing not what others have done.

This is about not chasing somebody or replicating somebody or imitating somebody.

This is about figuring out what you want.

What do you want?

And then really growing to understand that,

really beginning to form your own opinion,

and it doesn't mean that you don't listen to other people.

It doesn't mean that you don't sit at somebody's feet and learn from them.

It simply means that the goal is not imitation.

The goal is understanding.

And when you go into learning something,

knowing that that thing has utility,

that when you get that skill,

when you really understand that thing,

what it's doing is giving you a brick

that you're going to be able to build something with.

But remember, the goal is the building.

The goal is to create something that didn't exist before.

And the only way to do that is to actually understand what you're doing,

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